Otago, Central Otago and Pinot Noir

As my lumbering turbo-prop from Queenstown finally landed in Christchurch, capital city of New Zealand’s South Island, last night, I suddenly realised I was already missing the tight-knit group of Central Otago wine producers I had spent the last few days with – not a feeling I usually experience on leaving a wine region.

But Central Otago is special. There’s the name for a start. We outsiders think of it as ‘Otago’. The locals all call it ‘Central’, which makes it sound like a metro stop or a railway station when in fact it is the most spectacular wine region...